Browse Items (16471 total)

Chaucer's accounts of royal entries in KnT, Anel, MLT, and LGWP indicate how the confluence of historical records and literary practice influenced the idea of kingship in the late Middle Ages.

Examines theatricality in Chaucer's work evidenced in spatial representations, the specialized behavior of performers, and the presence of an audience in PrT, SNT, and MilT. Some attention to TC, HF, MkT, SqT, and FranT.

French translation of WBT.

Di Rocco explores the role of Chaucer's works in the development of romance in England, commenting on the poet's fusion of classical material and romance in KnT and TC, the concern with gentilesse and trouthe in WBT and FranT, and the reference to…

The dawn song in TC (3.1415-1526) stresses "contrast between the mundane love of the two lovers and the heavenly love associated with the dawn and the light in a Christian context."

Brown approaches the loathly lady's sermon on "gentillesse" as political allegory, emphasizing "the transforming power of relinquishing control over those who work, the third estate."

MilT's heterosexual focus gains comic resonance from its homoerotic underside--clearly present in Absolon's branding of Nicholas and the anal inversion of the oral functions of kissing and speaking. In its emphasis on vindictive sexuality, RvT…

The pilgrims' decisions to address each other formally, as "you," or intimately, as "thou," reveal their attitudes about each other and their own social self-conceptions. Harry Bailly's central role, in terms both of the poem's structure and of…

Chaucer's work as commissioner in the marshes between Greenwich and Woolwich may have suggested images for RvT. Fellow commissioners may have influenced GP portraits.

Argues that Henryson's "Testament of Cresseid" is fundamentally Boethian in its castigation of "inconstant Venereal love," and suggests that Henryson links his poem to TC in order to "underscore the Boethian view of love."

Using scientific chaos theory to clarify the changeable complexity of CT, Thundy argues that disunity is a fundamental feature of the work. Also argues that the Persian poem Manteq-at-Tair ("Language" or "Parliament" of the Birds), by Farid-ad-Din…

Explains palindromes and palindromic structures, rooted in classical and exegetical traditions, here exemplified by means of Augustine of Dacia's couplet. Then argues that PardT "features palinodromically arranged characters, settings, and words that…

Maintains that the PhyT was "specifically adapted especially to the Physician as teller," arguing that the opening of the Tale and its rhetoric reflect the arts training common to late-medieval physicians, that various details reflect the teller's…

Pandarus, the Pardoner, and the Poet Chaucer are all three creative artists and experience the frustations of the unloved. The Poet created Pandarus and the Pardoner as representation of deep impulses within himself.

Argues that "through his patterning of imagery Chaucer systematically expressed his doctrine on poetic creativity," i.e., that a poet may "achieve imaginative vision" by "withdrawal into a mental otherworld." In his early dream poems and especially…

Nakao assesses Criseyde's comment on trusting Pandarus (TC 3.587) as ambiguous, considering "phonological, morphological, lexical/collocational, syntactic and pragmatic" aspects of Chaucer's use of "moste" as an auxiliary and an adverb.

Yoshikawa studies Middle English verbs with both reflexive and impersonal uses in ten typical situations, considering Chaucer's uses of "menen" and "remembren" as examples where semantic value and the nature of the participants affect usage.

Compares the various landscape features in Chaucer's works with the walled garden of the Roman de la Rose. The merit of Chaucer's landscapes is that the poet tailored them to be part of an intimate, homey world.

Argues that the difference between the mechanical powers of humans and the essential power of God is central to the literary discussion of craft. Concern with craft as natural religion and with faith as the canonical craft provides a strong thread…

Considers MkT complete as an experiment in a new literary form that Chaucer used to medievalize materials.

Examines Chaucer's use of descent and ascent, particularly in NPT, a successful comedy.

A word list from TC 4 shows that Chaucer invented new meanings by combining previously unconnected root words; however, someone else may have introduced those roots into the language.

Assesses how words of specific actions--such as "sing," "dance," and "play"--operate lexically and how they can help produce a courtly atmosphere by expressing the joy of love.

Chaucer's use of "herte" for "the hart," "the heart of the body," and the "sweetheart" unifies BD.

After examining the original, rhetorical, and, and contextual meanings of "gentil" and its related words, Kanno discusses how Aurelius, who is at first destitute of generosity, is transformed into a gentle squire.